KBR Building Group Official Builder of CowParade North Carolina 2012, Community Service Initiative to Benefit N.C. Children’s Hospital

August 31, 2012

Earlier this month, KBR Building Group employees in our Research Triangle Park (N.C.) office, together with other volunteers from UNC Hospital and Wells Fargo, actively participated in the kick-off of CowParade North Carolina 2012, a festive fund-raising initiative presented by title sponsor Wells Fargo for the benefit of North Carolina’s Children’s Hospital. KBR Building Group — designated the “Official Builder of CowParade North Carolina 2012” — provided more than 10 volunteers who spent a good part of two days in mid-August assembling and delivering more than 80 “cows” throughout the Triangle area.

CowParade North Carolina 2012 features 81 painted and costumed cows, all whimsically transformed by regional artists — professional and amateur — from life-sized “blank canvas” fiberglass cows. Thanks to the support of many corporate partners and sponsors, including KBR Building Group, stylized cows are grazing in high-trafficked public places throughout Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh now through December 7, 2012. At the conclusion of the public exhibition phase, select cows will be sold via live auction at a gala event on February 2, 2013, while others will be sold via an online auction. Funds raised will be used to help N.C. Children’s Hospital protect the health of the state's 2.1 million children.

The life-sized cows, each with a fanciful moniker fitting her design, are about 8’ long and 5’ high and weigh approximately 125 pounds before application by the artist. CowParade North Carolina’s heaviest work, Lady Carolina Bloo, a UNC “moo-saic” design comprised of shards of Vietri pottery, weighs approximately 350 to 400 lbs. The cows are additionally attached to a 400-pound concrete base so as not to “moo-ve” from their grazing locations.

KBR Building Group's Mike Siderio, project executive, described the community service effort, saying “Despite the weather not cooperating, we exceeded our plan of a three-day assembly/distribution process, accomplishing all in two days. This was largely due to the efforts of our two partners, Lowes Home Improvement (our transportation partner) and Sunbelt Rentals (our small tools partner). Lowes donated nine trucks the first day, and four trucks the second day, which we used to distribute the cows to their ‘herding’ locations. Sunbelt Rentals donated two forklifts and a generator, all of which we kept busy both days powering our hammer drills and screw guns, and ‘mooooving’ concrete bases and loading cows. A special thank you goes out to both of these corporations for their generous donations.”

CowParade North Carolina 2012 is conservatively estimated to attract more than 500,000 visitors to the Triangle area during the three-month exhibition late this summer and early fall. The cows are displayed in streets, parks, storefronts and other public places as a veritable free outdoor museum of cows. Herd locations include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, the American Tobacco campus and Golden Belt in Durham, and North Hills and Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. Visitors will also find several “cows in outlying pastures” throughout the Greater Triangle and beyond, as far away as Fayetteville and Wilmington.

CowParade is an organization headquartered in West Hartford, Connecticut. It has produced more than 75 major public art events with its signature cow canvasses since the celebrated Chicago exhibit in 1999. Over half-a-billion people have seen CowParade events in 30 countries on six continents.